St. Augustine fell to Columbia 34-8 on Friday in the Class 6A regional semifinals, making it consecutive years that the Yellow Jackets have been eliminated from postseason play by the Tigers.

St. Augustine coach Joey Wiles knew his team was in for a challenge going into the game, and as the night progressed he was proven to be correct.

“What it came down to was we didn’t make enough plays early,” Wiles said. “To beat a good team like that you need to make things happen for yourself.”

That’s not to say that the Jackets (11-1) didn’t stand a chance. The first quarter ended with the score tied at zero and a long, drawn-out battle appeared in the making.

But, then came the second quarter.

Instead of going into the half down by six points, two interceptions on Sandon Mims — both thrown while he was hit — gave Columbia another 15 points in one minute and six seconds to take command of the game.

Roger Cray of Columbia returned the first interception 41 yards for a touchdown, and Trey Marshall returned the second to St. Augustine’s 25-yard line, which led to a Ronald Timmons touchdown run.

That drastic swing of momentum proved too much for the Yellow Jackets to overcome.

“They were shell-shocked going into the half,” Wiles said. “They’re a good, basic football team. What they do they do very well, and they’re a team that can threaten for a state championship.”

Mims, who finished the game with 140 yards through the air on 15 of 35 passing with two interceptions and a fumble, carried the offensive load for the Yellow Jackets. Rushing up the middle simply wasn’t an option against Columbia’s stout defense, which was bigger in size and comparable in speed.

Levent Sands carried the ball just seven times on the night for 32 yards and St. Augustine had only 15 rushing attempts as a team — six of which came from Mims as well.

“We were (upset) at halftime,” Mims said after the game, visibly upset as he lugged his pads toward the team bus. “We felt like there was still a chance for us to turn momentum around, and when we got the fumble recovery to start the second half we didn’t capitalize on the chance we had.”

Columbia coach Brian Allen noted after the game how badly his players wanted this result. Even after beating St. Augustine last year, his players heard about how explosive the Yellow Jackets’ offense was and how it could level the playing field. All this did was give Allen a chance to challenge his defense to prove those people wrong.

“When I told my players about how explosive St. Augustine was offensively, that was all it took for them to get motivated,” Allen said. “They love that kind of chalk talk, that’s all they need to feed off of.”

Despite the bulletin board material, Columbia didn’t take control of the game from the starting gun. Many St. Augustine receivers had chances for big plays early, but the talent discrepancy showed up just like Allen knew it would.

“At the end of the first quarter, when it’s tied at zero we felt like we were getting into a dog fight for the rest of the game,” Allen said. “But as the game went on that’s when all the conditioning and weightlifting started taking over and we proved to be the stronger, bigger team tonight.”

The only score for St. Augustine came in the fourth quarter on an 84-yard fumble return by Cody McCullough. It helped the Yellow Jackets avoid being shut out for the first time since a 9-0 loss to Pensacola in 2009.

Defensively, St. Augustine held its ground for as long as it could. The Tigers were forced to punt on their first two offensive possessions. But slowly and methodically running backs Timmons and Lonnie Underwood kept pounding the ball to the left side, behind the massive frame of tackle Laremy Tunsil.

Timmons finished the game rushing for 160 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries, while Underwood added 67 yards on 13 carries plus a score of his own.

“Everything they did tonight was what we’ve seen in film,” Mims said. “Nothing surprised us. They’re a big, physical team, and when you go up against a team like that who’s also very well coached, it’s tough.”

Even when the Yellow Jackets thought they had stymied Columbia late, they were wrong. Allen called a fake punt with his team leading 27-0 in the third quarter that paid off with another seven points, putting St. Augustine down in a 34-0 hole.

Columbia (11-1) moves on to the Class 6A regional finals to face Navarre.

As for the Jackets, the 2012 season ends with an undefeated regular season to their credit and the deepest postseason run of any team in St. Johns County, though that fact was accepted begrudgingly by St. Augustine players after Friday’s game.

And for Wiles, he hopes his players can acknowledge the success they had this year despite how it ended.

“What I can say about them is that even with such a huge difference in size between the two of us, our guys fought together to win until the last whistle,” Wiles said. “That’s all I can really ask for.”

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Can't believe you have a senior running back that only ran the ball seven times coming off of a 200 + yd performance the prior week. St. Aug has always been run first team. Still in disbelief. Jackets 4Life

A possible reason for the lack of 1st qtr success for Columbia might be the fact that District 4-6A teams are in collusion w/ one another not to provide tape/film to teams outside of their district (eg Columbia). So even though St Aug had NO problem obtaining and viewing tape on Columbia to prepare for THEIR game, the Tigers had to scout on the fly during the 1st qtr to dissect the SAHS schemes & then implement their adjustment in the 2nd quarter & beyond.

Funny how the 'noble' District 4-6A teams have no problems at all scrounging for other out-of-district opponents' tape from other districts but won't provide any their own..